DAYO’S NOTES FROM BRAZIL

I SPENT EIGHT GREATS DAYS IN SAO PAULO AND RIO DE JANEIRO WATCHING WORLD CUP MATCHES, PARTYING AND GETTING TO SEE BRAZIL BUT WITH AN INTERNATIONAL VIBE DUE TO ALL THE TOURISTS THERE FOR THE WORLD CUP AND I NOTICED A FEW THINGS. IF YOU WILL –  

People Love Nigeria (At Least our Football)

The Nigerian jersey was both rare and quite popular in Brazil. How so?

We were 4 days in Sao Paulo and apart from my 2 friends, some Nigerians at our hotel based from the USA, an official of the Nigerian Football Federation we ran into at a club and 1 other guy in the streets, we did not see any Nigerian jerseys. This compared to literally hundreds of people wearing jerseys from other countries so sighting the old Green White Green was a rare occurrence.

In spite of the above, every time we went out wearing our jerseys and I mean EVERY time, we were stopped in the streets and asked “Nigeriano?” “Are you from Nigeria?”.

Very little English is spoken in Brazil by the natives but they like our football. Multiple people asking to take pictures with us and/or asking to swap jerseys with us.

I suppose the polite thing to do would have been to swap (I especially feel bad for the 8/9 year Argentinian boy that asked for my jersey) but these jerseys were proving to be such an icebreaker that we ended up wearing them far more than planned.

Brazilians are bloody good looking and very health conscious

Ladies and Gentlemen, all you heard about the Brazilians being amongst the best looking people on the planet? I confirm this is true. All those descendants of African, European and Asian immigrants and slaves make for a potent combo. If I had visited in my 20s, I wouldn’t have  left.

The Brazilians are also health conscious, I travel a lot for work and otherwise and I go to the gym regularly whether in Nigeria or travelling so I am a bit of a hotel gym tourist. I can tell you the good and bad hotel gyms and those hotels that have the laziest and healthiest guests based on how occupied the hotel gym is but in Sao Paulo I was at the gym at 5am (jetlag, I’m not a crazy person) and the hotel gym was full. I’ve never seen this before and they were all Brazilians, from their 20s to one guy going beast mode who had to be 50 years old at least.

Rio? ForgetAboutIt. We stayed right by the famous Copacabana Beach and I’ve never seen so many people running at all times of the day. Lifting weights, aerobics, playing beach volley ball etc. all ages. I saw many 40, 50, 60 year old men and women jogging and cycling.

  

City Of God

The title refers to a film based in Rio but also describes the city. Rio is beautiful. Beaches, mountains, lagoons and of course, the famous Christ the Redeemer statute. We took a helicopter ride. It was glorious. Highly recommended.  

Caipirinha

 

Caipirinha is Brazil’s national cocktail made with Cachaca (which is a liquor made from Sugar Cane), sugar and lime. I felt it would be rude not to partake of the most popular cocktail so I did. Many Times. Only to be polite of course.